Chapter 1

We were making love, or so I thought, until Sebastien moaned his ex’s name in my ear as he sank into the bed I’d made myself that morning.

**Katerina.**

Just like that. With a ‘K.’ A sharp, elegant sound that sliced through the air and turned the heat of his body into cold ash against mine. I stayed beneath him for a moment longer. Not out of dignity—I just didn’t know how to move. My brain had gone white, like an old TV screen flickering into a dead signal.

Sebastien rolled onto his side, his breathing slowing almost immediately. He fell asleep with the rhythmic ease of a man who had just closed a successful business deal. To him, it was just a slip of the tongue. To me, it was the sound of my soul snapping in half.

The mattress felt like it was swallowing me. It had this dip in the middle that I hated, one I never dared to complain about because *he* had chosen it. Or maybe *she* had. Every piece of furniture in this gilded cage felt like a relic from a temple built for a woman who wasn't me.

I got up clumsily, my legs trembling so hard I stepped on the hem of my nightgown and nearly fell. It wasn't a graceful, cinematic exit. I stumbled, hitting my shin against the designer bedframe. A dull, human pain to match the jagged one in my chest.

In the bathroom, the marble was freezing. I didn't turn on the main light, just the small bulb that had been buzzing for months—another thing Sebastien never bothered to fix. The flickering light made my reflection look like a ghost.

I’d bought the pregnancy test three hours earlier. The little box had been burning a hole in my purse all day, rubbing against my keys. I opened the wrapper with trembling hands, my nails bitten down to the quick—a habit I’d picked up the year we got married.

I waited. The pink line didn’t just appear; it screamed. It was urgent, defiant.

I looked in the mirror and saw **Grace Elizabeth Moreau**. Or what was left of her. I was wearing one of Sebastien’s shirts, the fabric still smelling like his expensive cologne. I shoved the plastic stick into the shirt pocket. I needed it close to me, a warm, secret weight against my skin.

*You’re a father, Sebastien,* I thought, looking at the closed bedroom door. *And you don’t even know you’ve already lost us.*

I sat by the window until the sky turned a bruised, light gray. I remembered a Sunday morning, a year ago, when he’d made me laugh so hard I cried. I’d thought then, *"This is it. I’ve finally been seen."* What a pathetic, hungry fool I was.

At eight o’clock, his bare feet thudded on the stairs. He walked into the kitchen with that effortless, predatory confidence. I was already at the table, a cup of black tea gone cold between my hands. No breakfast was waiting for him.

“No eggs?” he asked, not looking at me, his eyes glued to his phone.

“We need to talk,” I said. My voice sounded thin, like parchment.

He didn't even pause his swiping. “Katerina is leaving her husband.”

He said it the same way he talked about the stock market. Casual. Final. I gripped the cold cup until my knuckles turned white.

“She’s coming back,” he continued, finally looking up. But he wasn't looking at *me*. He was looking through me, at a future I wasn't part of. “We’ve talked. I want her back, Grace. I'm filing for divorce.”

The air left the room. I had trouble breathing—a childhood ailment that always flared up when I felt trapped.

“You’re leaving me for a woman who already threw you away once?” I asked, my voice cracking.

He let out a sharp, mocking breath. “She didn't throw me away. She was lost. And you... you were just here, Grace. You were a quiet port in a storm, but the storm is over. I’ve already called the lawyer.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to pull the pregnancy test out of my pocket and throw it at his handsome, arrogant face. I wanted to see him crumble. But as I looked at him, I realized he wouldn't crumble. He’d just see the baby as another problem to be settled with a check.

“Okay,” I whispered.

He blinked, surprised by my lack of a fight. “Okay? Just like that?”

“You want a ghost, Sebastien. I’m tired of being the one who has to pretend I can’t see her.”

I stood up, my dignity held together by a single, fraying thread. I went upstairs and packed a suitcase with the things that were actually mine—itchy sweaters from college, my spare glasses, and that plastic stick with the pink lines.

The lawyer arrived in the afternoon. He had a face like a blank ledger and pointed to the "X" on the papers with a manicured finger. Sebastien leaned against the doorframe, watching me sign my life away as if he were watching a tedious movie.

“You can keep the SUV,” Sebastien said, his voice dripping with the kind of pity that feels like a slap. “And I’ve left enough in the joint account to keep you comfortable for a while. You’re a mouse, Grace. You wouldn't know how to survive without my shadow.”

I looked at him, really looked at him, and felt a surge of cold, pure hatred. “I don’t want your money. And I don’t want your shadow. It’s too dark in there.”

I walked out. The front door was heavy—I’d asked him to oil the hinges a dozen times. It creaked like a dying animal as I shut it behind me.

It was raining, a cold, miserable October drench. I didn't care. I got into the car and felt the platinum weight of my wedding ring. It had been getting tighter lately, choking my finger. I sucked on my knuckle, using saliva and grit to pull it off, and tossed it onto the passenger seat. It looked like a zero. A nothing.

I started the engine.

My stomach gave a tiny, sharp flutter. A seed. A secret. A life that would never know the sound of its father's voice calling it by another person's name. I wasn't thinking about revenge yet. I was too tired for that.

But as I drove away from the Montgomery estate, the rain pounding against the glass, I realized the mouse hadn't just escaped the trap.

She had taken the bait with her. And one day, I would make him pay for every second I spent being his second choice.